It’s been a very long twelve months for Leyla Fernandez, although perhaps not so much. The candid played her first Grand Slam final in the US Open 2021, where she lost in two sets to Emma Raducanu, an experience that allowed her to savor the best and the worst of the sport. Since then, it is true that she has not made much noise on the circuit, although she was the first to know the difficulties that lay ahead of her. Now that the season is in its last few meters, Leylah seems mature and ready for a challenge like this. She thus expressed it in the Media Day of this Friday.
Ready to play
“This year’s US Open is going to be fun, it’s going to be exciting. I’m super happy to be back here, hopefully I can play well in front of the New York crowd and that the atmosphere is as electric as it was last year. My thought coming here was awesome, I didn’t remember everything being so big, I felt like a little girl on a playground, but it was fun. I just want to enjoy my time here, hopefully we can spend two full weeks, but I just want to take it match by match.”
Deleven months of apprenticeship
“I am happy with my performance in these last two months, although it is not what I had imagined. I thought that everything was going to be perfect, although it was clear that there would be some ups and downs along the way and I would have to find solutions, go through difficult times. I think it was all a learning experience, not only about my tennis, which I practice constantly, but also learning about myself. I want to continue improving as a person and enjoying my time on the circuit”.
Serena’s retreat
“She is an icon, a legend, those are the first words that come to mind when I think of her. She has done a lot for the sport, not only for tennis players, but for women in general. She has fought for all of us, she has done incredible things, it is a bit sad to see her leave the sport. She has charted a path for all WTA players, even some ATP players, for all of us to reach our goals and express her feelings, keep fighting for what they believe in.”
Relationship with Raducanu
“It’s funny, every now and then we run into each other, but we don’t talk about what happened in New York. I think we both have the same mentality, we want to think about the present and not about the past. We know what happened in New York, it was a lot of fun, but now we are focused on the current tournament, on our training. We are happy to see each other again, happy that we are both doing well, we always wish each other the best. Hopefully we can keep going, improving day by day”.
Loyal to Jorge, his father and coach
“My dad did his homework studying other fathers who were successful in this sport, both on the ATP tour and on the WTA. He investigated the father of Maria Sharapova, Andre Agassi or Pete Sampras, among others. We have studied everything, we learned from what they did and we tried to replicate it, but in our own way. When we see those successful families, it motivates us to do the same, knowing that it will not be easy because we also went through our difficulties.”
Avoid the controversies
“I can’t control what ball we play with, I just want to play with the same balls as everyone else. At this moment I am happy to have a tennis ball to hit, nothing more, I remember years ago where I couldn’t even get a couple of balls, so I had to play with colored balls or ping-pong balls. It’s something I don’t think about, I’m just thankful for having a racket, a ball and a net, that’s all we need to compete, the minimum to put on a show and enjoy on the court”.
